Trip Itinerary
Day 1: En Route
New England Fall Foliage tour members from Florida will travel on their own to Orlando’s Amtrak Station in time for the 1:57 p.m. departure of the Silver Meteor.
Relax in your reclining coach seat with leg rest. Viewliner Roomettes and Bedrooms are available for an additional cost. After settling in, you will want to wander about the train. Throughout the day and evening you will travel from Florida through the states of Georgia South Carolina and North Carolina.
Dinner in the diner will be included this evening.
Meal(s): D
Day 2: En Route / Rutland
You will want to enjoy breakfast in the diner this morning and view the passing scenery as we continue on to New York’s Penn Station. Arrival is scheduled for 11:36 a.m.
You will have time to enjoy an “on-your-own” lunch within the station prior to our 1:15 p.m. departure on an Empire Service train. Arrival into Albany is scheduled for 3:45 p.m.
We’ll board our deluxe tour motorcoach and travel north 100 miles to Rutland, a southern Vermont city of 16,000. On our way to Rutland, we’ll visit the Bennington Battle Monument. The Monument is the tallest structure in Vermont, soaring 300 feet above Old Bennington.
Your hotel for the next two nights is the Comfort Inn. There are several fine restaurants within walking distance.
Meal(s): B
Day 3: Vermont
Enjoy a Continental breakfast this morning before striking out on a day of visits to some of Vermont’s major attractions.
We’ll travel the short distance to Proctor where we’ll tour Wilson Castle. This mid 19th Century estate home was built in 1867 on a 115-acre property. With an elaborate facade of English brick and marble, the Castle has 32 rooms, complete with a towering turret, parapet and balcony. The Castle also features 84 stained glass windows and 13 fireplaces.
Marble is one of Vermont’s major natural resources. It is shipped all over the world. Proctor is also the home of the Vermont Marble Exhibit. One of the largest displays of its kind in the country, it illustrates the origin, quarrying and finishing of marble. You can watch a sculptor at work and visit a sculpture gallery. Displays include marble from Vermont and around the world.
Following an “on-your-own” lunch in Rutland, visit Hildene, one of the state’s major attractions. Hildene was the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln. This was home to his descendants until 1975. The 24-room Georgian Revival Mansion is filled with original furnishings and personal family memorabilia, surrounded by formal gardens.
You’ll return to your hotel in Rutland for a second night.
The Tour Director will host a Welcome Dinner tonight at the South Station restaurant, one of the city’s finest
Meal(s): CB & D
Day 4: Vermont/New Hampshire
Following a Continental breakfast (included), you’ll board a comfortable motorcoach and continue the New England discovery program. First on the schedule is the Vermont Country Store in Weston. This nationally known “mercantile” features practical items and items you may not find anywhere else.
Continue to the Billings Farm and Museum to see both a modern, working dairy farm and a museum of Vermont farm life in the 1890s. The museum is housed in four reconstructed barns. You can see butter making, cheese making, ice cutting and sugaring. You can also observe the daily activities of the dairy operation.
Following an “on-your-own” lunch, you’ll continue to the Quechee Gorge. Vermont’s “Little Grand Canyon” lies west of Quechee. The bridge that spans the gorge 162 feet above the Ottauquechee River provides a good view of this natural spectacle. We will have time for photos before continuing to Meredith.
You’ll arrive in Meredith and depart on a 6:00 p.m. Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad excursion train for a two-hour round trip to Lakeport. The train hugs the picturesque shoreline of Lake Winnipesaukee, the state’s loveliest and largest lake. Enjoy a full-course turkey dinner with all the trimmings during the trip.
Continue by motorcoach to North Conway where you’ll spend the next two nights at the Residence Inn by Marriott.
Meal(s): CB & D
Day 5: North Conway
A full breakfast is included this morning in your hotel. Today you’re traveling on the Conway Scenic Railroad through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Eastern U.S.
On the Notch train you travel through awesome Crawford Notch past sheer bluffs, steep ravines, cascading brooks, panoramic mountain vistas, and across the famed Frankenstein Trestle and Willey Brook Bridge. The destination is Crawford Depot. You’ll enjoy first-class seating. Live commentary includes history and folklore of the railroad era as well as points of interest. A boxed lunch will be served (included). An on-board snack bar offers sandwiches, snacks and beverages. The motorcoach will meet us at Crawford to return to our hotel.
Meal(s): B & L
Day 6: Mt. Washington
Another high point of our fabulous New England Fall Foliage vacation will be the trip on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway to the summit of the highest mountain in the Northeast U.S. A ride up Mt. Washington on the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway remains, as it has for well over a century, an exciting and unforgettable experience. The ever-changing surroundings, the magnificent views, the sights and sounds of unique steam locomotives in action, and some of the steepest railway tracks in existence, combine to place it among the best of the world’s great railway journeys. Some days the view from the summit of Mt. Washington spans four states, Quebec, and the Atlantic Ocean, limited only by the curvature of the earth.
We’ll stop for an “on-your-own” lunch following our Mt. Washington excursion and continue on through some spectacular scenery about 120 miles to picturesque Stowe, Vermont. The village of Stowe is featured on many postcards of New England.
The world-class Trapp Family Lodge is a high point of this tour. You’ll spend the next two nights basking in the beauty of this magnificent Austrian-inspired lodge. The complex is exquisitely managed by the descendants of the “Sound of Music” family. Located atop the highest point of land in the area, your view of the breathtaking change of color is endless. A very special three-course-dinner experience and two bounteous Vermont country breakfasts are included.
Meal(s): B & D
Day 7: Vermont
A full day of northern Vermont discovery at 8:30 a.m. when we board the motorcoach and roll westward to the town of Shelburne where we’ll visit one of Vermont’s major attractions, the Shelburne Museum. There are 37 historic structures, many of them dismantled and moved there from various parts of New England, reconstructed and restored. Among the structures are a horseshoe barn, jail, country store, schoolhouse, smithy, meetinghouse, stagecoach inn, lighthouse, apothecary and furnished 18th and 19th century houses.
Other attractions include a railroad depot, private car and locomotive, a two-lane covered bridge with a footpath, a round barn and a hand-crafted model circus parade more than 500 feet long. The side-wheeler steamboat Ticonderoga was hauled two miles over land from Lake Champlain to its landlocked berth at the museum.
The collections of Americana displayed include folk art, dolls, toys, quilts, rugs, pewter, coaches, carriages and wagons as well as fire fighting, hunting and agricultural equipment.
The Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial houses European furnishings, sculpture and paintings by Edgar Degas, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Rembrandt, as well as works by American Artist Mary Cassatt. Formal gardens, ornamental trees and shrubs, roses, and lilacs adorn the grounds. An “on-your-own” lunch is available.
At noon we’ll travel the short distance to another popular attraction, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, for a glimpse of the step-by-step creative process required to make these jointed teddy bears.
You’re free this evening to enjoy dinner in the hotel or another fine Stowe restaurant.
Meal(s): B
Day 8: En Route
Breakfast is included in our hotel. This morning we’ll check out of our hotel and travel a few miles to Waterbury Center where our travelers will visit the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. You’ll see cider made the old fashion way.
We’ll continue on to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, our final Vermont attraction. We’ll enjoy a 30-minute guided tour, watch a seven-minute film in the Cow Over the Moon Theater and pay a visit to FlavoRoom to sample the newest offerings.
An “on-your-own” luncheon stop will be made in Bristol. Following lunch, our motorcoach will continue south through some awesome Green Mountain scenery to Albany, New York. You will check in to the Crowne Plaza Hotel for the night.
Meal(s): B
Day 9: En Route
You will check out of our hotel early this morning and transfer to the Albany Amtrak Station in time for the 6:55 departure of the Empire Service train for New York Penn Station.
Upon arrival into Penn Station you will change to the Silver Star in time for the 11:02 a.m. departure.
You will be able to enjoy a dining car lunch shortly after departure.
Relax in your reclining coach site with leg rest. Viewliner Roomettes or Bedrooms are available for an additional price.
Dinner in the diner is included this evening.
Meal(s): L & D
Day 10: En Route / Orlando
Wake up to a delicious dining car breakfast this morning.
Our arrival into Orlando is scheduled for 10:17 a.m.
Meal(s): B